February 13: Letter to the editor: Portland landlords’ petition carries upside for existing tenants
Jody Huntington of Portland wrote a letter to the editor in support of the RHA’s proposed amendment. Huntington notes, “this proposal would benefit both landlords and tenants. It allows landlords to keep existing rent prices stable for their current tenants and, in return, landlords can raise rents to market rates once a tenant moves out.”
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February 13: Bill aims to further protect tenants from landlord retaliation
Around 30 rental housing providers and advocates testified against LD 45 this Thursday during its first airing before the Judiciary Committee. “All this does is create more hurdles for landlords who want to legitimately evict tenants,” Lawliss said. “Good tenants are almost never evicted. Almost all evictions happen for very good reasons…We are not the enemy.”
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February 14: Bangor considers revised "tenants' rights" ordinance
Bangor City Council recently held a public reading of a revised tenants' rights ordinance. If approved, the ordinance will “require a 60-day notice of any rent increase, limit the cost of screening fees to $75, and eliminate rental application fees entirely.”
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February 16: Portland approves plan for 179-room hotel
The Portland planning board approved plans for a 179-room hotel at 385 Congress Street. The top floor will include nine condos. Hotel projects in Portland are required to build “a certain number of low-income housing units based on the number of rooms they have or pay a fee. The developer is opting not to build any affordable housing and pay a fee of $700,000.”
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February 16: Auburn Planning Board denies proposed Phase 2 of Stable Ridge Apartments
On Tuesday, the Auburn Planning Board rejected a proposal by the American Development Group to add a second phase of construction to their current project, the stable Ridge Apartments at 555 Court St. The proposal would have doubled the number of units to 120. However, Auburn Mayor Jason Levesque notes that the permit denial wasn’t based on facts against the project and “believes the Planning Board will bring the project up for reconsideration next month.”
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